Financials Up As Market Parties Like It’s 2007

By Sam Mamudi

It’s just like old times, isn’t it? The Dow Jones Industrial Average is above 14,000, seeing a triple-digit points rise during the session — and financial stocks are seeing bumper gains.

Financial sector stocks on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index are up about 1.5% so far, with Morgan Stanley (MS) up 4%, and Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) both up about 2%. The Dow’s largest gainer is Bank of America (BAC), up 3.1%. (Maybe the thought of a new advertising campaign fixing the bank’s image has everyone excited.)

Also rising are insurers Chubb (CB) and American International Group (AIG), both up about 2.5%.

It’s not gains for everyone, though: One of the day’s big decliners is asset manager Legg Mason (LM), down 3.2% after it said this morning its CEO search continues, as do investor outflows from its mutual funds.

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The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.